Method of making shingle strips



LANGSTON. NG SH! Jan. 9, 1923.

NGLE STRIPS. AR. 23. 1922.

m M A D S L F METHOD 0 Fl E t I gvwemtoz -W flw v-m Patented Jan. 9, 1923.

NITED STA PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL M. LANGS'IION. or wEnonAr imw massif .ME'rHon or MAKING SHINGLE ST IPS.

Application filed March 23 To (77 whom 1'? may Pom-cm:

Be it known that l. SAMI'EI, M. Laxcsrox,

a citizen of the United States. and resident of \Venonah. in the county of Gloucester and State of New Jersey. have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Shingle Strips, of which the following is a specification. p

This invention relates to the manufacture of that type of multiple shingle or rooting .is of a length several times the width and' provided with a plurality of notchesor recesses in one of the longer edges. so as to form tabs each'of a width correspondingto that of an individual shingle. when laid in overlapping rows on the roof have the tabs and notches exposed at the lower edge to give the general appearance of individual shingles. Y

The products of different manufacturers vary as to the shape and configuration of these tabs or shingle-like projections, and as to the relative widths of the tabs and the notches, or intervening spaces. 7

It'is customary to out such strips from sheet material which is continuously or intermittently fed from a roll, a saturating and coating machine or other source of supl v- Many processes and machines have been invented for making these multiple shingles. In some it has been proposed to'use a sheet of awidth corresponding to the length of the shingle strip with the strips extending transversely of the sheet. and the spacing between transverse cuts corresponding to the width of a strip. In others it has been proposed to use a sheet of a width equal to a multiple of the width of a strip with the strips extending lengthwise of the sheet and slitted lengthwise between strips. There are numerous advantages for the lengthwise arrangement of-the strips in the sheet.

To make a clean transverse cut on COIltil'b uously advancing material. the cutter. while operating, should advance with the material, and at substantially the same speed. The greater the distance between transverse cuts The strips ofexposed tab ends.

, 1922. Serial no. 546,153.

the more time there is for the cutter to com- I plete its cycle of movement and come to position forthe next cut. The smaller the number of cuts per unit of length oftheadvancmg sheet. the faster can the sheet be advanced, whether the advance be continuous or intermittent. and the larger the numa given time. k I

The sheet material often varies slightly in width and therefore with the transverse arrangement of strips the strips will vary in length unless the sheet be trimmed to an exact width. Variation in length causes trouble in laying of the strips with tabs and recesses in accurate staggeredrelationship. With the strips extending lengthwise, a variation in the width of the sheet merely causes a variation in the width of the edge strip or strips. This is of no material conber of shingles which can be produced in sequence as the extent to which the strips areoverlapped when laid. may be varied to take care of variation in the width while ,maintai-ng the accurate staggering of recesses bet-ween tabs, and the uniform width -If the sheet be of awidth materially greater'than the length of a standard shingle strip, but less than twice the length, the traverse arrangement of strips may result in the waste of a trimmed ofi portion which may be of a width nearly equal to the length of a standard shingle strip, whereas with the lengthwise arrangement of strips, a larger or smaller number of strips may be secured and the width of a possible waste portion will not exceed the width of a standard strip.

In spite of the forgoing advantages of reduction in number of transverse cuts per unitof length. faster speed of sheet delivery, limiting dimensional variations to strip width rather than length, and reducing the width of a possible waste strip if the sheet be much too wide, the almost universal practice has beento cut the strips transversely of the sheet. Although the other arrangement has been tried from time to time, I do not know of a single instance of successfuland recesses of each strip extend in a direction at. right angles to the direction of feed of the sheet. The tabs when unsupported at theirfree ends often droop or bend down,

i so that during the advance of the material they are liable to catch on or be folded under by parts of the machine with which they engage. The liability of bending the tabs is particularly great if the sheet material is fresh from the saturating and coating machine and still hot, as is usually the case. The supporting of the tabs as they advance to and pass beyond the chopper or other cut-off mechanism. int'olves serious mechanical difiiculties. These difficulties, as well as others, have heretofore renderedpreferable the cutting of' the strips transversely of the sheet.

One object of my invention is to provide an improved method whereby I eliminate these difiiculties which have been inherent in previously proposed methods of cutting the sheet into strips extending lengthwise thereof, and am able to cut the strips faster, more accurately and with less waste than is possible with strips extending transversely;

' As one important feature, I first form transverse slots or apertures in the sheet inv positions corresponding to the desired recesses in the shingle strips, and intermediate of the side edges of the sheet, so that each aperture or slot has a continuous periphery with no projecting parts which can bendout of the plane of the sheet, or fold over. I then cut the slotted or apertured sheet transversely into sections, each of a length corresponding to the length of a shingle strip, and as a final step, separately slit each such section to form the final product. As the tabs are not formed until the slitting from one slot. or aperture tothe next and as this slitting is .the final step in the process, and while the-prmluct is leaving the machine, the strips may he slid or conveyed onto a carrier or stack, and the tabs supported without liability of their catching on the cut-0d mechanism or other parts of the machine. as would be the case were the slitting performed before the trans verse cutting.

By having all the slots or apertures intermediate of the edges of the sheet instead ofin the edges of the sheet, there are no free end tabs until the slitting is done after the cut off, each tab has an accurately cut straight end rather than being formed of a raw edge of the sheet and variation of the width of the sheet does not vary the length or size of the tabs or recesses. or irregularity in the Width of the strip Variation formed along the edge portion of the sheet, comes on the edge of the strip opposite to the tabs, and this is covered 1n laying the roof.

As a further important. feature, I employ 'slots or apertures. and thereafter as a separate step, connect the two slits of each pair at each end thereof by short. longitudinal cuts, and simultaneously remove the small pieces of material thus severed. The forming of the slots or recesses in this way permits a simplification of the construction and design of the cutting parts.

In the :u-companying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a-sheet, successive portions from the right hand end toward the left hand end showing the action of successive steps of the method.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view of machine parts which may be employed and properly driven and timed in respect to each other to carry out the method. and

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a section of a width to form four strips.

The material employed in my improved method may be that commonly employed in the manufacture of multiple shingles or roofing strips. This material in the form of a continuous sheet A may be delivered from a roll, or from a machine employed for saturating, coating, or otherwise treating the body or base portion of the sheet. The sheet is shown in Fig. l of a width substantially equal to three times the width of a single complete shingle strip. Obviously the method is not limited to this particular width, as the sheet may be of any width. If the sheet be materially wider than a multiple of the width of the strip. the waste portion will be less than the width of a strip. The first step in the cutting process is to form one or more rows of slots or apertures. This may be accomplished by first forming the desired number of rows of pairs of transversely extending slits A. The distance between the two slits of each pair is equal to the desired width of a recess in the completed shingle strip. the space between successive pairs is equal to the desired width of a shingle t ab,and the length of each slit is equal to the depth of a recess or double the depth of the recess depending upon the number of strips to be formed across the.

.as shown in Fig.

sheet. For an even number of strips. as shown in Fig. 3. the number of rows of slots may he one-half the number of strips to be formed, with each slot of a length equal to twice. the depth of a recess between tabs. If therebe an odd number of strips, 1. the slots of at least one row will be equal to the depth of the desired recesses.

1 then connect the two slits, A. of each pair by longitiulinally extending slits or cuts A or otherwise punch out or remove the material between the two slits of each pair so as to form transversely extending apertures or slots A. The slits A may be formed by pairs of parallel knives 10, mounted on a roller 11, and coactiiig with a hardened steel surface of a roller 12. Other suitable slitting means might be employed, which would form the slits during the high speed lengthwise travel of the sheet. The slits A may be formed by short longitudinally extending knives 13, on a roller 14, and acting against the surface of or into recesses in the surface of a. roller 15. The removed portions may remain on the roller 1.), and be separated therefrom by a suitable stripper 16.

The sheet next passes to a cut off mechanism which transversely severs the sheet into sections B. This cut off mechanism must be so designed that it may act on .a rapidly traveling sheet without retarding the latter.

The mechanism somewhat diagrammaticah lv illustrated may be substantially as shown in my prior Patent 1,359,076 issued November 16, 1920. This includes a pair of knives 17 and 18. one carried by an arm 19 pivoted to swing about a fixed axis 20, and the other carried by an arm 21 pivoted to swing about an axis 22 on the first mentioned arm 19. The arm 21 has an extension 23 connected to the crank 24 of a crank disk 25. Th rotation of the crank disk causes the knife 17 to move back and forth in the general direction of travel also causes the knife 18 to travel not only lengthwise of the sheet, but toward and from the knife 17. The crank may rotate continuously with a uniform or variable speed, or may stop and start after each cutting cycle. The proportioning of the parts and the speed of the drive are such that at the instant the knives 17 and 18 come to gether and pass each other, they are traveling with the sheet at substantially the same speed as the latter. They do not slow up or start their return movement until afterthey have separated, so that the sheet is free at all times to advance at its uniform rate. Beyond the cut off knives are a pair of feed rollers 26, 27, which are driven with a slight- 1y higher surface speed than that of the travel of the body of the sheet. They may of the sheet, and

mechanism.

slip on the sheet until the section is cut off, or they may have slip friction connections to a faster drive so that they speed up as as the aperture forming cutters.

The feed-rollers 26 and 27 act to jump each section B forwardly as soon as it-is severed from the body of the sheet by the cut off mechanism, thus leaving a free space between the ends of adjacent sections after they are cut off. This greatly facilitates the later stacking or conveying of the finished strips. The feed rollers 26-27 also act to deliver the cut off sections between pairs of slittersBU and 31 which are so disposed transversely of the sheet as to slit each section lengthwise along lines so disposed that each row of apertures in the section is intersected by such a slit. If each sectionis to be cut into three strips C and the slots of one row are of double the length of the other, then one pair of slitters would slit each sect1on along a line C intermediate of the ends of the longer slots, and the other pair of slitters would slit the sheet along a line C at one end of the-apertures or slots of the other row, as shown in Fig. 1.

If the sheet is to be cut into an even num-o ber of strips, then all of the slots A may be bisect will be along such tabs are formed by the longitudinal slitting of the sections.

It will be noted that as an important feature of my invention the tabs are not formed until the last or final operation, and that there are no corners or shoulders which can bend down orcatch on any part of the mach1ne during the progress of the material through the machine. As the slitting is the final operation, the tabs are not freed or completely formed until they are ready for immediate delivery on to the conveying It wilhbe noted that the feeding rollers 26, 27 whlch pull the sheet through between the transverse cut off mechanism 17, 18, act

The feeding of the sheet or apertures 'tabs simulating tending lengthwise of the sheet to advance all parts of the sheet crosswise thereof uniformly. inasmuch as the sheet at this time has not been split or slitted lengthwise. This is of material advantage in securing accuracy and uniformity in the length of the sections as if the sheet were slitted before or in advance of the cut off mechanism some strips might be drawn taut while others are comparatively slack, due to the irregularity in the thickness of the sheet and difference in the action of the feeding rollers on ditferentstrip. sections. This advantage of uniformity of strip length by cutting transversely before slitting. is ac complished irrespective of whether the slots A be intermediate of the side edges of the sheet or extend inwardly from one or both edges to leave freely projecting tabs. I

Itwill of course transverse cutting may either side of an aperture, or through the middle of an aperture. as shown, and that the sections B may be made to include a larger or smaller number of these apertures A depending upon the number of tabs and recesses along the length of each fina-lshingle strip. 7

By taking all slack out of the portion of the sheet acted on by the cut off mechanism, I insure proper registry of the. transverse cuts with the previously formed slots or apertures. which would not'be the case if there could be slack of varying degrees between the slotting mechanism and the cut off mechanism.

Having thus I claim as new and desire to secure by ters Patent is a l. The method of producing multiple shingle strips from aprepared sheet of roofing material of awidth equaling the width of a plurality of said strips, each strip extending lengthwise of. the sheet and having along one longitudinal edgethereof a plurality of notches or recesses and interposed the ends of individual shingles, said method consisting in forming apertures in the sheet in a row longitudinally of the sheet, and spaced atdistances equal to the distances between the recesses or notches in the finished strip, severing said sheet transversely into sections each of a length corresponding to the length of a finished strip. and separately slitting each sec tion lengthwise along a line intersecting said row of apertures.

2. The method of producing multiple shingle strips from a prepared sheet of roofing material of a width equaling the width of a plurality of said strips, each strip exand having longitudinal edge thereof a plube understood that the be in alignmentwith described my invention, what Letalong one rality of narrow notches or recesses and up terposed tabs simulating the ends of indlture-forming and vidual shingles, said method consisting in continuously advancing the sheet lengtlr wise, forming longitudinally of the sheet a row of apertures, cutting the sheet along transverse lines into sections and thereafter separately slitting each section lengthwise along a line intersecting the row of apertures.

3. The method of producing multiple shingle strips from a prepared sheet of roofing material of a width equaling the width of a plurality of said strips, each strip extending lengthwise of the sheet and having along one longitudinal edge thereof a plurality of narrow notches or recesses and interposed tabs simulating the ends of individual shingles. said method consisting in forming openings at uniform intervals along the length of the sheet intermediate of the side edges thereof. pulling the sheet taut, cutting the sheet transversely across the taut portion, and thereafter separately cutting each section lengthwise along a line intersecting the row of openings to form the roofing strips.

a. The method of producing multiple shingle strips from aprepared sheet of rooting material of a width equaling amultiple of the width of one of said strips, each strip extending lengthwise of the sheet and having along one longitudinal edge thereof a plurality of narrow notches or recesses and interposed tabs simulating the ends of individual shingles, said method consisting in forming openings at uniform intervals along the length of the sheet intermediate of the side edges thereof, pulling the sheet taut. cutting the sheet transversely across the taut portion, and thereafter separately advancihg the cut-off sections at a more rapid rate than the rate of travel of the body of the sheet and cutting each section lengthwise along a line intersecting said openings.

5. The method of making shingle simulating strips of flexible material for roof covering which consists in providing a, sheet sufficiently wide to make two or more strips. cutting a row of apertures at uniform intervals along the length of the sheet intermediate of the edges thereof, cutting the sheet transversely into sections. cont-inuously advancing the sheet during the apersection-cutting operations and separately advancing the cut-off sec- I tions and slitting them longitudinally into said strips.

6. The method of making shingle simulating strips of flexible material for roof covering which consists in providing a sheet sufiiciently wide to make two or more strips,

cutting apertures at uniform intervals along the length of the sheet, cutting the sheet transversely into sections while maintaining the sheet in taut condition, by the action of feeding means disposed beyond the cutting means. continuously advancing the sheet during the aperture-forming and section cutting operations. and separately advancing the cut on" sections and slitting them longitudinally into said shingle strips.

7. The herein described method of making shingle strips which consists in forming an elongated strip of flexible material impregnated with a water-proofing compound and covered with a mineral substance. forming longitudinal rows of apertures therein. sev- .versely extending slits in a sheet of prepared rooting material. cutting the sheet lengthwise to connect the two slits of each pair at each end thereof. and permit removal of the severed pieces. cutting the sheet transt'ersely into sections. and cutting each section lengthwise to form the finished strips.

9. The herein describedmethod of making prepared shingle strips. each strip presenting a ser es of tabs. and narrower interposed recesses along one longitudinal edge thereof, said method consisting in cutting a longitudinally extending row of pairs of transversely extending slits in a sheet of prepared rooting nraterial ..cutting the sheet lengthwise at spaced points to connect the tWo slits of each pair. and permitremoval of the severed pieces, cutting the sheet transversely into sections, cutting each section lengthwise to form the finished strips. and continuously advancing the sheet during all of saidcutting operations.

10. The herein described method of preparing shingle strips, each strip presenting a series of tabs and interposed recesses along one longitudinal edge thereof, said method consisting in cutting out portions of the sheet corresponding in position to the desired recesses. cutting the sheet transversely -into sections. cutting the separate successive sections lengtlnvise thereof, and continuously advancing .the sheet, sections and strips during said cutting operations. Signed at New York in the. county of New York and State of New York this 20th day of March A. D. 1922.

SAMUEL M. LANGSTON. 

